How To Customize Hot Wheels – The Wheelswap

Today we’re going back to where it all began and learning the single most important skill required to customise Hot Wheels and Diecast Cars – the basic wheel swap.

Customizing Fundamentals

Like every Hot Wheels customiser I know, I began my journey into customising diecast cars with the beloved wheel-swap. With the help of the vast selection of real rider wheels that Mattel produce the basic wheelswap can completely change the look and overall ‘feel’ of the car, so much so that for many this one beautiful act is enough to satisfy their customising needs. And good on you I say**

For this reason, along with one more that I shall explain below the video I have decided to share in detail the process of how to remove the base of your Hot Wheels vehicle, remove the standard ‘mainline’ wheels and replace them with a set of real rider wheels. It is also important to note that the methods I will be sharing with you today are such that

You will be able to remove the base and axles and then put it all back together without the need for screws or glue. Repeatedly 😉

And to make sure you understand exactly what I’m waffling on about (and let’s be frank, I do love to waffle <– SEE!) this How-To Guide is presented in video format (Yay)

How To Customise Hot Wheels – The Basic Wheelswap

I would like to take this moment to ask all you awesome custom peeps to subscribe to my YouTube Channel (click that link there. Where? You just missed it!)

Alternatively you can watch the video directly from YouTube in which case you can just press that red button underneath that says ‘Subscribe’. Awesome Sauce, now please enjoy this video how to guide.

*Yes I know my nails are disgusting – like seriously, and yes I am slightly embarrassed by them :p but the fact of the matter is I have a serious case of Adult ADHD and don’t think I will ever be able to quit doing it. Of course the upside is I only need 4 – 5 hours sleep a night and have an actively creative imagination – how do you think I keep up this customising caper? Want to know the secret to thinking outside of the box – live there 😉

Further Reading

This video covers the very basic wheel swap and assumes that the axles of your new donor wheels are the same width as the existing mainlines. In a lot of cases (like heaps actually) you will find this is not the case and as such you are left with no choice but to make your own axles. But that’s OK! – cause I totally have a guide for you – it’s just HERE

Of course if you need anything (anything!) else then there’s a good chance you’ll find it in the HOW TO SECTION

The Finished Product:

In the video I only changed one axle to save time so allow me to share a few images of the finished product. MMM indeed

**The Wheel Swap Only Customizer

I want to take this moment to bring up a point that I have seen raised on a few Facebook groups, that being the wheelswap only customiser. Some of the … well, dickheads among us seem to be of the impression that a wheel-swap does NOT constitute a custom and therefore anyone sharing Hot Wheels and diecast cars that had only received a new set of shoes was not really a customiser at all. To these people, and any reading this that agrees with that sentiment I say, no I don’t say actually. I am not even going to waste my breathe but instead will direct it to pointing out the positive – and obvious fact:

Giving your Hot Wheels cars new wheels is as much a custom creation as going balls deep into some mental apocalyptic nightmare of a build, and I would even argue that in the grand scheme of things it is much much more.

The basic wheel swap is beautiful in its simplicity and is the beginning of a journey that is as unique as its creator – how is that not FREAKING AWESOME!?!